“I think he would have been distracted by Tottenham. It would have been human nature for that to have been the case.

“He’ll have seen what’s going on at Spurs and how exciting it is. New ground, top manager, and top-level players.”

It'll be interesting to see if Tottenham take another run at Aston Villa in January.

It could well happen, but it's worth bearing in mind that Harry Winks is bang in form at the moment and a move for Grealish arguably jeopardises his ongoing development at Spurs.

Simply put, Winks gets a lot more playing time if the Aston Villa man isn't around. He impressed in Tuesday's Champions League win over PSV Eindhoven and from a Tottenham perspective that's only a taste of things to come.

The Villans star has only managed one goal in 16 Championship appearances this season which, for a player of his talent, is slightly disappointing.

Shane Callaghan

Shane is a Dublin-based sports writer who swapped the football pitch for the press box upon learning that he was better with a pen than with a round bit of leather. Prior to joining HITC, Shane enjoyed spells with Sports Mole and Goal.com among others, while he was also club reporter for Irish football club Drogheda United.